We got up and went downstairs for breakfast at the hotel. When the tour guide arrived, Daddy and I hopped in the van, where we picked up an English couple and a French couple at other hotels. We were dropped off at a bus stop where we climbed on a large tour bus with other tourists. However, the bus was fairly empty considering its size, and again I was reminded about the effect the Red Shirt riots were having on Bangkok tourism.
The first place we went to was Bang-Pa In Palace, which is north of Bangkok on the way to Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of Thailand.
Because I was not “properly dressed,” I had to put on an oversized, tacky yellow t-shirt to cover my sleeveless shoulders. I thanked the Lord that I was wearing pants that day, because if I was wearing shorts I would have to wear a sarong (wrap skirt) around the entire palace grounds.
Because of Daddy’s knee, we separated from our tour group and rented a golf cart to explore the palace grounds, but it was nice to have the breeze to cool me off. Already I was growing tired of Bangkok’s hot, humid weather. It was much hotter than Macau, but at least a bit less humid.
Bang-Pa In Palace was built in the 1800s by the royal family as the Summer Palace, but now it is not inhabited and very rarely used by the current royal family. The grounds were absolutely beautiful, and the groundskeepers keep the place pristine.
Although they had traditional Thai buildings throughout the grounds, most of the building were very European. However, there was a beautiful Thai temple that sat in the middle of a small lake, and there was even a Chinese-style building on the grounds as well.
I had a lot of fun taking pictures of the bushes, which were trimmed to look like various animals, like running rabbits and a family of Thai elephants. There was also one that looked like a man, but I'm not 100% sure...
It was great to get to the palace right at opening time, since there were very few tourists besides our group on the grounds. Since we left our tour group, it felt like we almost had the entire grounds to ourselves, just Daddy, me, and our golf cart. Admittedly, I wanted to try driving the golf cart, since I really miss driving my car back home, but I didn’t want to screw up and crash the golf cart or anything. : )
After turning in our golf cart, we stopped for a snack before our tour bus took off. I had some red dragon fruit, which you can’t find too often in the US. Honestly, it tastes fine but you can find better-tasting, more flavorful, sweeter fruits.
We left Bang-Pa In Palace and headed further into Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of Thailand, where we stopped off at Wat Maha That. The ruins are very old, and there are a number of headless Buddha statues around the grounds. Apparently the statues were defiled after the Burmese invasion in the 1700s. As much as I wanted to take a picture with my head in place of one of the statues, we were specifically told it was not allowed.
One of the coolest parts of the visit to these ruins was a fallen Buddha head. It was wrapped in the roots of a tree, which had grown around it, but eerily leaving the face perfectly exposed. It’s a very famous image of Thailand, and I had learned about it in my Tourism Destinations class. It was really cool to be able to take my picture with it. But when I went over to take my picture, security personnel came over and asked me to bend down when next to the head, as a sign of respect.
After exploring the ruins, we went to an elephant place, where they offered elephant rides and elephant shows where they would perform. They had super-huge elephants, but they also had sweet baby elephants that were shorter than me! I fed a baby elephant, and he was so cute and sweet! One of the bananas was really tiny, and when I gave it to him he kept his trunk held out for another one. Like the elephants at the Siam Niramit show, these creatures were obviously very intelligent. I also watched a man giving the elephants a bath with a hose, and the elephant would get the spots he missed by using his own trunk to squirt water on himself.
Our tour bus ended with a lunch cruise down the river back to Bangkok. The buffet lunch was really delicious, and when we were finished Daddy and I went onto the deck to see the view.
On deck we sat next to a Spanish couple, whose tour guide spoke Spanish to them. I tested myself to see how much I could understand, and I was quite surprised by how much I understood. I got very excited about it, and shared what information I understood with Daddy.
From the boat we could see from miles away the smoke rising from the city center, where the riots were taking place. The Red Shirts were burning tires to create lots of smoke and keep the military at bay. But despite all the signs throughout the weekend that there was trouble going on, I still felt very safe.
When we were dropped off at the end of the cruise, we hung around a coffee shop rather than return to the hotel. At 6:00 we were expecting another dinner cruise to pick us up at the same spot. I’d heard a lot about this dinner cruise from my mom when Daddy took her a few years before, and saw pictures of my dad dancing in the traditional Thai way. It was sure to be a great time.
Before we went onto the dinner cruise I went inside the mall to use the bathroom. Dad gave me some Thai currency, and I asked why. He told me it was common to have to pay to use the restroom in various places around Asia. I thought it was a little strange. What if you really have to use the bathroom, but don’t have any money on you? What do you do?!?
Anyway, when we were finally on the dinner cruise, unfortunately, only three tables were occupied. Daddy and I had one, a Western couple had one, and a group of four older Westerners had the last table. However, the staff was very friendly, and I had an absolutely great meal (although I was afraid of the shrimp, so Dad had to take them away and peel them for me).
There was a musical performance by one girl, who played a xylophone-like instrument with floppy, rubber mallets. It was beautiful music, and I loved listening and looking at the instrument. I think the girl was happy I took such an interest in her music, especially since the other groups on the boat had really bad attitudes throughout the whole night. They hardly clapped for any of the performances, and when it came time to participate in traditional Thai dancing they refused to leave their seats. The Western couple didn’t even watch the dancing, but just stared out over the river the entire night. Why they paid for a dinner cruise and not even enjoy it, I have no idea.
A pair of girls came out and danced in different costumes throughout the night. They danced very traditionally, and to classical Thai music.
Another girl came out and danced and was joined by a White Monkey. The White Monkey seems to be a theme in a lot of Asian stories, like the performances I saw in Bali and in Beijing as well. The monkey was a jokester, and he had a bit of fun with Dad, poking his belly and laughing.
And then it came time for audience participation in some traditional Thai dancing. I was chosen to learn some Thai dancing, along with one of the older Westerners. The woman only danced a little before sitting back down, so basically I was the only one dancing. It was a little embarrassing, but rather fun. : )
After the cruise dropped us off at the end of the night, we took a taxi back to Soi 11, the street our hotel was on. We went to Dad’s favorite massage place to get some massages for fun, but it was closed down. We found another one which seemed alright, but when we were led upstairs I thought the place looked pretty sketchy. And by sketchy I mean it looked like a brothel!
Rather than have massage tables they had thin mattresses lined up on the ground, which could be separated by hospital curtains. Dad and I were lucky and got our own individual cubicles, but it still had the bed mattresses and not the massage table. There was even a sign on the wall that said (I kid you not) “NO SEX.”
However, the massage was nice. I opted for the traditional Thai body massage, since I was in Thailand, after all! I knew I would need to work out all the kinks in my body, especially before the cramped, economy-class flight back to Macau the next day.
Coming up next, “Thailand: Day Four,” the final installment in my journey to Thailand!
Love,
Kati
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